That’s the issue – signing/acquiring guys based on what they did in the past, in other places, rather than correctly projecting what they would do in the present, and future, in New York.
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There really isn’t any other way to acquire players, be it from the minors, from the FA market, or from overseas.

I may be misreading your statement.

~~The pitchers you gave Cashman a “gold star” for acquiring have failed in the playoffs. ~~

Yeah, that El Duque guy was terrible for the Yankees in the post-season.

Please.
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Don’t be obtuse. “To be fair, Cashman deserves a gold star here for Wang, Gordon, Hernandez and Mussina – who were all picked-up on Brian’s watch.”

Are you saying that the pitchers you listed have never failed in the playoffs?

Well, i don’t have access to RSAA, but just browsing some stats, from 1994-1998, you have the following list of pitchers who contributed a fair share of innings (granted some are less than 40) and pitched terribly:

Terry Mulholland
Jeff Reardon
Xavier Hernandez
Scott Bankhead
Joe Ausanio
Scott Kamieniecki
Ramiro Mendoza
Dale Polley
Steve Howe
Hideki Irabu
Kenny Rogers
David Weathers

Do the same for Epstein, or any other GM with a few years under the belt. What it tells you is that pitching, especially relievers, is pretty damn inconsistent year to year. It also tells you that there is no such thing as a perfect GM (duh). If you also look at the ERA+ etc of those pitchers from the WS run, none of them are really spectacular. Same thing with the Red Sox WS teams. They tend to have 5 or so guys in the BP that can really eat up innings effectively one way or another…

Sure, Cashman has brought in a lot of bums. Some of those guys also pitched well in the PS. Some where never heard from again. Looking at your list, Loiza, Henn, Igawa, Small, Contreras, Lieter, Karstens, and Lidle all pitched under 100 IP, which amounts to half a season…

But Cashman doesn’t have to do that anymore b/c there is a farm system, just like Theo could look from within in 2006 to build his BP and fill out the rotation.

As far as I can tell, all your anti-Cashman ranting day after day really just proves that the only real way to do it is build from within, make one or two MAJOR trades, and throw a ton of different arms against the BP wall and see who sticks…

~~I just don’t see how you blame Cashman when he signs players with a history of success, and they then fail. I mean really, what exactly is Cashman supposed to base his moves on if not past performance ?~~

That’s the issue – signing/acquiring guys based on what they did in the past, in other places, rather than correctly projecting what they would do in the present, and future, in New York.

It’s Cashman’s job to project, correctly, how these guys would do for the Yankees. And, there, he’s failed.

~~The pitchers you gave Cashman a “gold star” for acquiring have failed in the playoffs. ~~

Yeah, that El Duque guy was terrible for the Yankees in the post-season.

Please.

~~~It’s pretty tough to rebuild a pitching staff when a GM has zero control over the acquisition of amateur players.~~~

Zero control? ZERO? Where is that documented?

Claims like that show how true this statement is:

“For too many Yankees fans when it comes to Cashman it’s ‘heads he wins and tails somebody else loses’.”

~~~If he bombs in 2009 with the young arms and the big dollars, go ahead and kill him all you like.~~~

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston Churchill.

I won’t be the only on him, if it happens, in 2009. But, for the record, at least I’ve documented now how I feel about his performance…

as have many here in the comments.

I look forward to looking back at this in a couple of years.

I think you are not being fair here. I’ll pick one guy: Shawn Chacon. Looking at his RSAA will certainly tell you that he was the 12th worst Yankee pitcher over the time frame you’re referencing. But put in context, Chacon was one of the teams strongest starters for a stretch in 2005.

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RSAA does take the fact that Chacon was good for a stretch in 2005 into account.

It took into account and that’s what prevented Chacon from being tied for 1st, if 2005 wasn’t taken into account, or being 1st all alone if, instead of pitching the way he did for the 2005 Yankees, he had been more representative of himself.

I believe that Contreras was a Steinbrenner ordered signing. The Yankees wouldn’t have made the playoffs in 2005 without Chacon. But for an unlikely series of events, the Yankees would have won the 2004 ALCS and probably the WS.

It’s pretty tough to rebuild a pitching staff when a GM has zero control over the acquisition of amateur players.

That Cashman has been able to assemble the plethora of young pitching talent that he has since being given that authority in 2005, speaks well of his acumen in that area.

On the negative side of the ledger, he has made numerous misjudgments in free agent signings and trades for pitchers.

Steve, that analogy didn’t make any sense to me. I’m not saying you should praise Cashman for doing a bad job. I’m disputing that he’s even done as bad a job as you say he has.

You’re knocking the 2004-2007 seasons in particular. I’m saying that Cashman didn’t have a farm system to work with until 2006. Now he’s got one. Let’s judge him from this point, where we see what he can do with all the tools at his disposal. After all, every other GM that I can think of didn’t have a barren farm system, a volatile and bifurcated management structure, and the pressure of sustaining a playoff streak (and all that entails).

If he bombs in 2009 with the young arms and the big dollars, go ahead and kill him all you like.